Trade war: China will exempt United States pig and soy tariffs

China announced Friday that some US agricultural products, including pork and soybeans, will be exempt from supplementary tariffs, a gesture of goodwill before the October trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing.

The Chinese customs authorities "will exempt some agricultural products, such as soybeans and pork, from the supplementary tariffs imposed on United States goods," the official Chinese agency reported Xinhua.

The measure looks like a response to the request made Thursday by the US government, which had claimed "substantial progress" in negotiations with China, after both sides made gestures that fueled the possibility of finding a solution to their commercial war.

President Donald Trump "can reach an agreement at any time, but wants a good agreement", Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, recalling that Beijing had committed from the beginning to balance trade between the two countries.

"We don't want a trip that is just a series of discussions. We want to make substantial progress.", said.

However, he also warned that Trump will only accept a good agreement, and that, if necessary, he is still willing to raise tariffs on the assets of the Asian country. The US president implied, for his part, this Thursday night that he did not exclude the signing of a provisional pact with China.

"I hear many analysts talking about a provisional agreement, which means that (with China) we would agree on some issues, the simplest ones, to begin with. But it is not simple or difficult. Either there is agreement or there is not. But it is something we could consider"declared the tenant of the White House.

According to the agency Bloomberg, the administration of Trump considered the possibility of proposing a provisional agreement to China to postpone or even cancel some of the tariffs imposed by Beijing and the United States.

Beijing announced Thursday that it would study the possibility of buying more American products, including pork and soybeans, which are currently heavily affected by Chinese tariffs.

"Let's see if the Chinese respect their commitment. As you know, the problem we always have with the Chinese is that they do not fulfill their commitments," he told the CNN Peter Navarro, economic advisor of the White House.

This week there were positive signs in the commercial conflict, which entered its second year. Trump accepted Beijing's request to delay a round of tariff increases until October 15 after China agreed to exempt some US products from its reprisals.

Senior officials of both powers are expected to hold preliminary talks at the end of this month, in preparation for meetings in Washington at the beginning of October led by Mnuchin and the US Trade representative, Bob Lighthizer.

"We clearly did not make the progress we wanted" at the last meeting in Shanghai at the end of July, Mnuchin said. "I am cautiously optimistic. I think the Chinese have good intentions with wanting to come here with an agreement now".

Beijing and Washington also announced a pause in their trade war on Wednesday.

China's economy is increasingly affected by this confrontation and, at the request of several companies, agreed to leave out a new round of tariffs on numerous products imported from the United States.

Trump responded that, as a sign of "goodwill," he would postpone the increase in tariffs on imported Chinese products by $ 15 billion until October 15.

In this commercial war what is the game is the mastery of technology.

Washington demands that the Chinese authorities put an end to business practices that it considers unfair. The United States especially emphasizes the forced transfer of technology to companies that want to settle in China and rejects subsidies to Chinese state-owned enterprises while accusing Beijing of stealing intellectual property rights.